So, you remember that thing I posted a while back, about how I feel like I have a limited amount of creative energy and sometimes that energy gets channeled into things other than blogging? Well, it’s happening again, only this time, rather than knitting, that energy is being channeled toward my job. Which is GREAT. It’s been a long time since I felt challenged at work, and I’m going to milk it for as long as I can. And while that’s happening, I may have limited interest in and time for blogging. Just so you know! I continue to be not dead … just a bad, inconsistent blogger.

As I’ve mentioned before, I live in Long Beach, California. As I’ve also mentioned, I love it, and one of the reasons I love it is that it’s full of old buildings. OK, OK, not OLD old. Not European old, or even east-coast-of-the-US old. But old enough to make me happy. Today, the Mister and I went on a small walking adventure throughout the area southwest of our apartment and took pictures of some of the cooler buildings we saw.

Be advised: this post is very long and EXTREMELY picture heavy. It focuses entirely on architecture, so if you find that kind of thing boring … prepare to get bored. Be also advised that I take credit for none of the photography here. The Mister took every last one of the photos (except two, and you’ll know them when you see them).

Let’s start off by heading down Ocean Boulevard, toward downtown Long Beach. Here’s a view looking west down Ocean. In most of southern California, the Pacific is to the west. But in Long Beach, just to make things confusing, the ocean is to the south–from this vantage point, to the left.

Here we have a Spanish-style fellow (there are a LOT of Spanish-style buildings around here). Note the enormous bougainvillea out front. We have a lot of that around here too.

And yes, the weather is nice. It wasn’t super warm today–maybe low to mid-60s–but warmer than apparently everywhere else in the country.

This particular area of the city has a great many smallish (say, 12-14 unit) apartment buildings. A lot of them were built in the late 1920s and have charming names.

Hard to read, but this one is called “The Empress.” Not sure what’s going on with the scaffolding back there. (It occurs to me that I should have left these photos bigger. Next time.)

The Art … Nouveau? Deco? (art nerds, help me out) one on the left is called The Regent.

Here’s a better look at it.

This one is called St. Regis. The Mister and I saw a commercial being filmed here in December (more on filming in a second).

Here it is from the front. Very San Francisco, no?

Next up, a couple of this area’s more famous buildings. First is the Villa Riviera.

The Villa Riviera has a pretty interesting history. It was the second-tallest building in southern California when it was built, and it housed a lot of naval officers during WWII. Long Beach has very close ties to the US Navy–my paternal grandfather married my grandmother (who lived on Ocean at the time) in Long Beach when he was in the Navy–but that’s a whole other post. I believe Charlie Chaplin also lived in the Villa Riviera at one point. The roof is actually copper. And guess what else it has up there?

See ’em?

Gargoyles! Woo!

Here’s another iconic one–the Long Beach International Building–that you’ve probably seen before, even if you weren’t aware of it at the time.

And where might you have seen it before? Well … ever seen “Anchorman”?

Or “Dexter”?

Quite a bit of filming goes on in Long Beach because it’s cheaper than filming in Los Angeles proper. In the early 20th century, Long Beach actually had its own film studio, called Balboa Studios. These days, the city mostly acts as a stand-in for other SoCal locations (San Diego, LA, Orange County) and places like Miami.

OK, let’s head north, or inland! Downtown Long Beach has lots of awesome old hotels, most of which I think are now used as apartments.

I don’t think this next one is actually a hotel, but it’s hotel-ish, so I’m including it.

One of the bigger old hotels is the Broadlind, so-named because of its location at the corner of Broadway and Linden.

In addition to the many old hotels, there are a few newer MOtels, some with outstanding sign design.

And we have a giant old bank building.

Now let’s head back toward where I live. The neighborhood I live in is pretty old and mainly residential (but with commercial areas a block or two away to both the north and the south). As such, there are lots of cool old apartments around for gawking at.

We also have many fine alleys.

This next one’s a good one. Called the El Cordova or the Rose Towers, it was designed by George Riddle, the same architect who designed the building I live in.

Old George was a big fan of Spanish-style buildings with courtyards. This photo of my building illustrates how similar it is to the Rose Towers, below.

He designed two or three other buildings on my street as well, including the Casa Nido across the street.

Even the boring public-service buildings in this neighborhood have personality. Behold the fire station (there’s an even cooler fire station in nearby Belmont Shore … I’ll take a picture of that one of these days too).

It usually has a life-size fake sheep out front (sometimes wearing a serape), but our theory is that they take it inside on weekends.

And our tiny, tiny library …

… with its extremely excellent signage.

And that, my friends, is why I love Long Beach. Sure, it’s got its scummy areas. Sure, I’ve been burgled here (not in my current apartment), and I’ve been attempted-robberied too. But it’s such a cool city, and the area that I live in has such a unique personality, that I’d have to think long and hard about moving anywhere else.

Once again, I have been trolling through the search terms that brought people to my blog over the past week. And once again, I have found myself wondering if those people found what they were looking for. I thought that today, I’d address some of these searches head-on and see if I can clear a few things up.

eshakti. It’s good, you’ll like it. Order some dresses. But I warn you, eShakti clothes are like Pringles. Once you pop, you can’t stop.

lop cookie. Sorry, can’t help ya!

whisky urban decay bourbon comparsion. I actually did this! Long story short: Whiskey appears to be Bourbon without the glitter.

boobs fit shirt. Can’t help you either, I’m afraid. Boobs not fit shirt, ever. Boobs fit knit shirt only. Very frustrating for Principessa. Principessa only wear t-shirt and cardigan. Never nice, crisp, professional button-down shirt. At least not with all buttons buttoned up.

wet and puffy. OK, seriously? This is the second time someone has found my blog using this search term. Which post of mine involves these two ideas? (Note to self: check to see if I wrote about taking baths during PMS week at some point.)

barefoot. As much as possible!

what are those boots that people wear over riding boots? I have no idea. That sounds like a lot of boots to wear at one time.

It seems that the more entries I post, the more entertaining the search terms that lead people to my blog become. The following recently used terms reflect my life and activities fairly accurately. Funny or sad?

1. Make it be warmer outside. True, it’s warming up a little bit, and true, it rarely gets what I’d call “cold” here. However, according to the cat, it is cold, especially in the evenings. So cold that it is apparently time once again for her to wheedle her little cat self onto or inside of my sleeping bag at every available opportunity.

I was sitting on the couch last night, knitting, as usual. I had the sleeping bag over my lap (I use it instead of a blanket sometimes because it has a temperature rating of 15 degrees F and is therefore super warm) with the closed-up bottom part on the floor. I felt some activity and heard some rustling down there …

so I got up and investigated.

OK, CAT. WE GET THE POINT. IT IS CHILLY. You’d think for a cat from Colorado she’d be a little hardier than this. But, having lived here for almost 7 years, she is apparently a thin-blooded Californian weenie now. (I kind of am too. And the Mister totally is–he bumbles around in shorts and a t-shirt and then has the nerve to complain that he’s cold–but he was born and raised here, so he has an excuse.)

2. Cook food. We’re having Thanksgiving dinner again. This will be our third Thanksgiving dinner in as many months. I can’t wait.

3. Lock myself in the bathroom and emerge several hours later with raw, bleedy, swollen eyelids.

My Urban Decay 24/7 set arrived in the mail today. I’m not ashamed to say that I opened it immediately, at work, and commenced drawing on myself. What? Casual Friday! Don’t judge me!

Anyway, having this in my possession makes me feel like

So I plan to spend a lot of time playing with it this weekend.

Yes, folks, those are my plans. That’s the kind of glamorous, sexy, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants existence we live here at Principessa Headquarters. Oh! And don’t let me forget the grocery shopping that will also happen this weekend! Try to keep your jealousy down to a simmer.

Ahhhh … the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I love this week. Everything’s quiet, the insanity of Christmas is over, and the frantic beginning-of-year activity is still a few days away. It’s a great time to reflect on the year that’s passed and make goals for the year to come.

One of the things I’ve been reflecting on is what I accomplished knitting-wise in 2010 and what I’d like to make in 2011. I’ve noted before that I’m a pretty selfish knitter, so the vast majority of what I made over the past year was for me. But, as usual, I knit Christmas gifts for several people this year, and now that they have them, I can post pictures. Today’s episode of The Christmas Knitting features the presents I made for my parents.

My mom got two pairs of socks. One was just a standard plain pair, made in the very pretty (or, as the Mister put it, “pleasing”) Sailor’s Delight sock yarn by Hazel Knits.

The other pair was “Angee” by Cookie A, from her book Sock Innovation. If you’re into sock knitting and are looking for some fabulous, well-charted patterns, you need this book. (And also her new book Knit. Sock. Love., but that’s another entry.) These socks were right up my alley–simple but engaging, fun, and quick to knit. I really looked forward to coming home and sitting down with these after work.

Lace socks look pretty uninspiring when they’re just hanging around. Let’s see them on feet! The cat needed to be in the first photo. She frequently competes with my knitting for attention.

Cat action shot!

The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in Spring Tickle. I LOVE SMOOSHY.

For my dad, I made a pair of mittens. But not just any mittens, oh no. THRUMMED mittens.

You may notice that these mittens look rather puffy. That is because of the thrums, which are the little multicolored bits you see. They’re snippets of unspun wool (or “roving”) that are knit into the fabric every so often. They form a crazy, fluffy, wooly layer, which looks something like this.

This layer creates an insanely warm pair of mittens. Or so I’m told. You’d have to ask my dad to confirm.

My dad has half a thumb on his right hand. So I adjusted one of the mitten thumbs accordingly.

There’s no real pattern for these mittens. I basically combined this thrum FAQ with a generic mitten pattern and voila … thrummed mittens. Yarn and roving are from Knit Picks. And if I never thrum anything again, it’ll be too soon. It was frickin’ fiddly.

Being extremely clever and efficient, I failed to take pictures of the scarves I made for Jette and my sister. So I’ll have to wait for the recipients to take their own pictures. I did manage to take a picture of my sister’s hat, though.

Yarn is Malabrigo worsted in Polar Morn (that’s the blue color) and Natural.

The instant I finished the Christmas knitting, I went right back to knitting things for myself. I finished up my Pi Shawl and blocked it today, so photos should be forthcoming fairly shortly. I also have Baudelaire sock #2 on the needles, and I started another pair of Twinkleberries and a plain pair of socks for my mom. Plus a brick-red triangular scarf that I’m making up as I go along, plus a fairly obnoxious pink scarf that should be perfect for spring, which is about when I anticipate it will be done, given all the other crap I keep casting on.

In other, non-yarn-related news, because my mother and I have outstanding taste in Christmas gifts for me, I own 12 more eyeshadows than I did on December 24th. Eight are Urban Decay and four are MAC. I’m sure you’ll be seeing A LOT of them in future posts. I may also have taken advantage of Sephora’s “Sale on Sale” deal yesterday, because the thing to do the day after Christmas is BUY MORE PRESENTS FOR YOURSELF, am I right? Fair warning: I’m leaning very heavily toward neutrals, purples, and taupes/browns/grays in terms of eye makeup these days, so if you find that boring … well, I guess you’re gonna be bored.

Note: Since it’s Thanksgiving Day in the US, I did one of those sappy “Things I Am Thankful For” entries today. If that kind of thing makes you roll your eyes, feel free to scroll to the end for pictures of me in a pretty dress and red lipstick.

I’m the kind of cheesy dork who tries to appreciate the small things in life. Part of why I like Thanksgiving (aside from the pie) is that it celebrates this kind of navel-gazing. It really lets you revel in gratefulness and humility, and it encourages you to spend some serious time thinking about your life and what’s awesome about it. Plus you get to eat until you can’t move and lie around watching The Twilight Zone all day. What could be better?

Thanksgiving 2010 has been pretty great so far. This morning I slept in. I get up just before 6:00 AM during the week, so sleeping in has become a bit of a luxury. This morning, I didn’t get out of bed until about 9:45. And it was GREAT. I love sleeping, and being in bed in general. It’s warm. It’s comfortable. It’s relaxing. And you know what are awesome? Pillows.

After we got up, the Mister and I took a walk. We live just a few blocks from the ocean, so we made some hot coffee, poured it into thermoses, and walked about a mile and a half down the beach. On the way back, we walked along Ocean Boulevard, which has some great old buildings (I’ll post pictures one of these days)–a green one called “The Empress,” an Art Deco one, a brick one that we refer to as “Toad Hall.”

Once we got home, I took a hot shower while the Mister made a second pot of coffee. I washed my face with Lush Buche de Noel (which smells delicious and is just a tad more moisturizing than Angels on Bare Skin–perfect for winter), and then used Haus of Gloi bubbling scrub in Parkin, which is like Christmas in a jar. It smells AMAZING. (ETA: I used it on my arms, not my face!) I like to ponder the coming day while I’m in the shower, so I thought about what was ahead of me today: cooking, eating, knitting, a phone call to my family in CO, probably a hot bath later. Post-shower, I took the pie I made last night out of the fridge to bring it up to room temperature, and then sat down to blog.

I have so many things to be grateful for today: A job that gives me holidays off and pays well enough that I don’t have to have a second one, which means I got to sleep in on Thanksgiving. A nice warm bed to sleep in, and a fabulous man (and a seriously obnoxious cat) to share it with. A quirky old apartment in a friendly neighborhood a stone’s throw from the largest ocean in the world. Access to a reliably hot shower and fancy-schmancy smelly products to use once I’m in there. A close relationship with my family, and the fact that we’re all healthy and happy. Enough money and leisure time to indulge in my hobbies pretty much at will. A computer and camera with which to create this blog entry and Internet access so I can post it. The list goes on.

My life isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and I’m sure that some people would be humiliated to live the way I do. No house? No children? No Lexus? No CABLE??? And you know what? To hell with them. I’ve had some tough times, but I’ve worked hard to build a life that I love, and there’s not much I would change about it. I’m so utterly fortunate. And I do my best to keep that in mind, even when–ESPECIALLY when–the going gets rough.

And finally, I’m so fortunate to have met you all through this blog. I don’t have a ton of readers, but hey–quality over quantity! Thank you for reading, even when I am a sucky inconsistent blogger. Please know that your support and comments mean a lot to me.

Holy sapballs, Batman! Let’s cut through the treacle with some clothes and makeup, shall we? Today I am wearing my new dress from Lucie Lu. (Sorry for the squinty pictures–it was bright out!)

It’s super comfy, although it’s a bit bigger through the bust than I’d like. I might take it in, I might not. The Mister thinks that it looks like lingerie. I think he’s full of poo. The dress is actually sleeveless; I’m wearing it over a short-sleeved top.

Outfit details–now with sizes! (I think it’s useful when people post sizes along with outfits–do you? And would you find it useful for me to post my physical stats? People usually do this on Fatshionista OOTD posts, and I find it really helpful.)

I did sort of pinup-inspired eyeliner and red lipstick today. The eyeliner is Urban Decay 24/7 in Crash, which is a gorgeous eggplanty purple with glitter. I really like it, but I always end up with glitter all over my face. I left these next two huge so you can see the glitter.

The lipstick is L’Oreal True Red mixed with a bit of Chocolate Truffle. I like my red lipsticks on the dark and brownish side, and it’s hard to find the exact right shade. So I usually have to mix a couple lipsticks together.

Nope! Still alive! Still very much bogged down in the Christmas knitting! The good news is, the end is in sight. The even more good news is, I have new clothes and am ever so excited to show them to you. The even MORE good news is, I also have new Fyrinnae and am even MORE excited to show THAT to you.

The less good news is, I cannot in good faith promise that I will have any time or energy for blogging anytime soon, what with the impending “Holiday Season” and all its attendant wrapping and mailing and cooking and baking and decorating and collapsing on the kitchen floor in a greasy, flour-encrusted heap of existential (though festive) angst, sobbing and heaving great breaths of gingerbread-scented air until I just wish for death to wrap me in its sweet embrace and when, WHEN, LORD, WHEN WILL I EVER SEE THE SUN AGAIN–

Oh. Sorry. What I mean to say is, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and the to-do list is starting to loom. So once again, I must be a terrible blogger and say please, hang in there! There will be pictures of clothes coming soon! And eyeshadow! Maybe even cookies! One of these days!

Went to the dentist today, for approximately the 14,863rd time in the last six months or so. I had two teeth filled, and one of those teeth is apparently in baaaad shape … possible-root-canal bad. This would worry me, but considering that I had two root canals over the summer, it’s sort of old hat at this point. I am a root canal PRO.

They shot me full of Novocaine, of course, and after my boyfriend and I got in the car, I puckered up and pretended to lean in to kiss him and we both cracked up laughing.

Hot.

So now I’m sitting here waiting for the Novocaine to wear off so we can have dinner. I think it’s starting to, because I’m feeling little twinges of pain in the bad tooth (as the dentist said cheerily, “The filling is sitting right on top of the nerve, so it might take a couple of days to calm down! And you’ll DEFINITELY have sensitivity to cold!” Greeeeaaaaat). As a consolation prize, I’m drinking one of these.

If you have access to Reed’s beverages (I can usually find them at Whole Foods), I HIGHLY recommend picking this up. Tastes like fall in a bottle!